Response of Glacier Melting to Climate Change——Take rümqi Glacier No.1 as an Example

Current glacier recession under climate warming has drawn widely attention around the world.Initiated from 1958,the observations of rumqi Glacier No.1 at the headwaters of rumqi River in eastern Tianshan promise the best datasets of glacier and climate changes in China.Taking rumqi glacier No.1 as an example,this paper has analyzed the response of the glacier to the climate change.The results show that during the past 50 years,remarkable changes occurred on the glacier,including snow-firn stratigraphy,glacial zone,glacial temperature(borehole temperature),glacier area,and glacier terminus position etc.These changes are found to be closely related to temperature rise in this area.The glacier retreat appears throughout the entire observed time period and shows accelerated tendency during the last 20 years,particularly after 1995.In addition to summer temperature increase,other two reasons may also be response to the acceleration of glacier melting: one is the glacial temperature rise,which may reduce the cold reserve in the glacier and thus increase the sensitivity of the glacier to air temperature rise;the other is the decrease of albedo on the glacier surface,which evidently enhance absorption of radiation.It is also found that commonly determined by both precipitation and temperature,the mass balance can be determined only by air temperature if the temperature rises up to a certain level,even under a heavy precipitation background.In addition,this paper has also discussed the predication of future change of the glacier.